Amateur Wine Maker Holds First Ever International Winefest Even in Denver, Colorado
First ever www.WinePress.US international WineFest for amateur wine makers supported by major players in the industry with their presenations, products and product tastings.
Belleville, IL, July 27, 2005 --(PR.com)-- Joel Sommer of the small town St. Libory, IL has been making home made wine for almost five years and was in charge of an international gathering of wine makers and grape growers for three days of events in Denver, Colorado just this past weekend. Sommer owns the website www.WinePress.US; which is the largest winemaking and grape growing discussion forum on the entire Internet. It has over 1,700 members, which puts it about 1,000 MORE members than the largest ones that Yahoo, MSN, Google and other discussion groups may have related to wine making.
Did you say International? Yes, that’s right, members of the www.WinePress.US forum came from all over the United States, Canada and as far away as West Yorkshire, England for the festivities. Also present were the top two wine kit manufacturers in the world (one of which presented three seminars), a cellar construction expert, an Executive Wine Somellier from the International Wine Guild, a chemist who makes sterilization powders, local winemaking shops, professional winemakers, a filter manufacturer, the owner of the largest international winemaking magazine and many more. Sommer put on the event with the help of members of the Winepress.US discussion forum in the Denver, CO area and also had assistance from family members.
The events started on Thursday evening with a general get together for a chance for members to finally meet after making friendships over the past years helping each other out with their winemaking questions. Friday was filled with seminars at a hotel conference room to accommodate over 100 attendees. Seminars started with Joel Sommer talking about the history of his wine making and how he began building the web site www.WinePress.US. This included a live online demonstration on navigation on the forum and other aspects of the WinePress.US site, such as the live web cam, where winemaking events can be viewed for free such as crushing / destemming of grapes, pressing of skins, racking of wine, bottling and other simple winemaking related procedures. “The fact that product manufacturers and industry leaders chose our event to offer their knowledge and share their time, is an indication that our group is truly recognized by the industry.” Sommer said.
The following presentations were on the importance of sterilization and cleaning, wine cellar construction, the history of wine kits, grape wine making and a full introduction to wine tasting. This seminar included actual tasting of individual items to train your senses and assist in identifying certain items that wine judges identify. During the seminars, judges were tasting 140 wines, which were brought in for the winemaking competition for members of the forum. Once the judges were done, all attendees where then invited to taste the remaining wines with the new wine tasting knowledge they just received. Dinner, which was included, shortly followed along with countless attendance prizes.
Saturday events were held at a local winery just a few miles from the hotel at Balistreri Winery, where a pig had already started roasting the night before. The seminars were held in a large tent just outside the winery. Events included actual demonstrations where wine kits were started, and then auctioned off. A demonstration was performed using a filter unit and that too was later auctioned off. Additional seminars included fresh fruit wine making, ensuring success with your wine kit, information on what it takes to go from amateur to commercial, vineyard and winery tour, followed by wine tasting of the Balistreri and Garfield Estates wines.
The hog roast buffet was served, and followed by announcements of the wine competition winners, more attendance prizes, a couple of items were auctioned off, and final words of appreciation were said. As this was going on, Jon Balistreri offered a personal private stock Port wine for all to taste, as it was just ready to be bottled. He filled a few flasks with wine straight from the barrel.
Will there be another next year? Yes, there is already discussion on the www.WinePress.US forum as to where, when and who will assist to put it on. Many of the manufacturers have already committed to attending again, with others showing interest as well.
WinePress.US is the largest wine making & grape growing discussion forum on the entire Internet. The site has been receiving over 3 million hits roughly for the past 8 months with approximately 900,000 banner views each month as well. There are no annoying click thru or pop up advertisements. The site is clean, easily navigated and free for all members to register. Sommer keeps the operation costs offset by a rotating banner ad program for supporting companies, in order to keep it free for all who want to register as members to share their knowledge in wine making and grape growing.
For more information and photos, go to www.WinePress.US and register for free or contact Joel Sommer at joel@winepress.us or via cell phone 314-368-1464.
###
Did you say International? Yes, that’s right, members of the www.WinePress.US forum came from all over the United States, Canada and as far away as West Yorkshire, England for the festivities. Also present were the top two wine kit manufacturers in the world (one of which presented three seminars), a cellar construction expert, an Executive Wine Somellier from the International Wine Guild, a chemist who makes sterilization powders, local winemaking shops, professional winemakers, a filter manufacturer, the owner of the largest international winemaking magazine and many more. Sommer put on the event with the help of members of the Winepress.US discussion forum in the Denver, CO area and also had assistance from family members.
The events started on Thursday evening with a general get together for a chance for members to finally meet after making friendships over the past years helping each other out with their winemaking questions. Friday was filled with seminars at a hotel conference room to accommodate over 100 attendees. Seminars started with Joel Sommer talking about the history of his wine making and how he began building the web site www.WinePress.US. This included a live online demonstration on navigation on the forum and other aspects of the WinePress.US site, such as the live web cam, where winemaking events can be viewed for free such as crushing / destemming of grapes, pressing of skins, racking of wine, bottling and other simple winemaking related procedures. “The fact that product manufacturers and industry leaders chose our event to offer their knowledge and share their time, is an indication that our group is truly recognized by the industry.” Sommer said.
The following presentations were on the importance of sterilization and cleaning, wine cellar construction, the history of wine kits, grape wine making and a full introduction to wine tasting. This seminar included actual tasting of individual items to train your senses and assist in identifying certain items that wine judges identify. During the seminars, judges were tasting 140 wines, which were brought in for the winemaking competition for members of the forum. Once the judges were done, all attendees where then invited to taste the remaining wines with the new wine tasting knowledge they just received. Dinner, which was included, shortly followed along with countless attendance prizes.
Saturday events were held at a local winery just a few miles from the hotel at Balistreri Winery, where a pig had already started roasting the night before. The seminars were held in a large tent just outside the winery. Events included actual demonstrations where wine kits were started, and then auctioned off. A demonstration was performed using a filter unit and that too was later auctioned off. Additional seminars included fresh fruit wine making, ensuring success with your wine kit, information on what it takes to go from amateur to commercial, vineyard and winery tour, followed by wine tasting of the Balistreri and Garfield Estates wines.
The hog roast buffet was served, and followed by announcements of the wine competition winners, more attendance prizes, a couple of items were auctioned off, and final words of appreciation were said. As this was going on, Jon Balistreri offered a personal private stock Port wine for all to taste, as it was just ready to be bottled. He filled a few flasks with wine straight from the barrel.
Will there be another next year? Yes, there is already discussion on the www.WinePress.US forum as to where, when and who will assist to put it on. Many of the manufacturers have already committed to attending again, with others showing interest as well.
WinePress.US is the largest wine making & grape growing discussion forum on the entire Internet. The site has been receiving over 3 million hits roughly for the past 8 months with approximately 900,000 banner views each month as well. There are no annoying click thru or pop up advertisements. The site is clean, easily navigated and free for all members to register. Sommer keeps the operation costs offset by a rotating banner ad program for supporting companies, in order to keep it free for all who want to register as members to share their knowledge in wine making and grape growing.
For more information and photos, go to www.WinePress.US and register for free or contact Joel Sommer at joel@winepress.us or via cell phone 314-368-1464.
###
Contact
WinePress.US
Joel Sommer
314-368-1464
www.WinePress.US
Joel Sommer
314-368-1464
www.WinePress.US
Contact